Jon Solomon is set to host his 19th 24-Hour Christmas Show on WPRB.
By: Susan Van Dongen
He’s making a playlist and checking it twice. What will go out on the air and sound nice?
Jon Solomon, a fixture at Princeton University’s WPRB 103.3 FM, collects and muses on holiday music all year. But when it gets to be October, November and especially December, he’s in full culling and rating mode, putting together the extensive index of songs he’ll play on his annual 24-Hour Christmas Show on WPRB in Princeton. The one-man radio show runs from 6 p.m. Christmas Eve until 6 p.m. Christmas Day, and has done so every year since 1988. Mr. Solomon was a 15-year-old freshman in high school when he first took on the challenge. Now he’s been doing the show for more than half of his life.
This year will mark the 19th edition of the show, which is known regionally, nationally and internationally for its mix of rare, strange and confounding records that are directly or vaguely holiday-related. Mr. Solomon doesn’t discriminate well, not too much. Songs good, bad and bizarre make the playlist, as long as they’re about Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s or the winter months.
Thankfully, unlike commercial stations that play 24 hours of Christmas music, Mr. Solomon digs deep and gathers unusual music from friends, listeners and longtime fans of the marathon as well as from his own research. So you won’t hear Gene Autry’s "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" 10 times throughout the broadcast.
But you might hear a version played by Jeff St. Pierre and Philip Antoniades, who perform music on rubber bands played at different pitches. It’s called "Rudolph the Rubber Nosed Reindeer" and it’s from A Rubber Band Christmas, where you can also find "Little Rubber Boy," just one of the treasures Mr. Solomon has discovered.
While explaining his gathering, listing and rating system, Mr. Solomon gives a few more examples of what listeners can look forward to. There’s Popeye singing Christmas songs for the kiddies. A German heavy metal band is crunching out its version of "Silent Night." A comedian does "The 12 Days of Christmas," but in her take, instead of receiving four calling birds and whatnot from her true love, every day she gets a different kind of booze, and by the end of the song she is quite inebriated. Mr. Solomon also plays something called "I was a Teenage Reindeer" with Jim Backus (Mr. Magoo) and Daws Butler, the voice behind countless Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters.
"I’ve tried to mix staples and old favorites with things that listeners like, things that I like as well as requests, but I also like trying out new things to surprise the audience and to keep myself interested," Mr. Solomon says. "If it was just years of playing the exact same songs over and over, you could get a robot to take my place."
Also unlike those commercial stations with the pre-programmed sounds of an announcer (probably recorded in a studio on the other side of the continent), people love the fact that Mr. Solomon is on the air he’s a real, live person making decisions about the music and talking to his audience.
"With those 24-hour stations, there’s no human element," he says. "I don’t want to be too much of the focus. But some people do listen because they like to hear me start out with a lot of energy, slow down throughout the course of the show and finally make it through. They enjoy the fact that there is someone behind this."
It isn’t a marketing research team or committee putting the 24 hours of music together either. The selections are all suggestions from listeners, friends and fans. Or else, they’re things Mr. Solomon has stumbled upon. Thanks to WPRB’s presence on the Internet (www.wprb.com), the 24-Hour Christmas Show goes out nationally and internationally. Longtime listeners compile offbeat holiday music or even write their own and send it to Mr. Solomon.
"This year, I could do a show that was 24 hours of songs I’ve never played before," he says. "It’s gone beyond quality control and reached a point where I can be choosy. There’s so much material.
"When I first started doing this, I had to play everything, I didn’t have enough of a library," he adds. "Now there are enough people who know the show and think about it outside of December and they all suggest material. There’s a whole network of tape traders and song traders who collect holiday music and send it to me. There’s one guy from San Diego who just sent me two CDs worth of holiday music more than 200 songs."
He says he’ll probably start compiling a digital folder for his 2007 show almost immediately after the 2006 show ends.
The audience is now officially worldwide for the 24-Hour Christmas Show. Mr. Solomon realized this last year when he went on the air and invited people from different countries and continents to call.
"My sister was in South America and she called me, so I put out a call to listeners from all over the world, trying to get as many countries as possible," he says. "And it didn’t take long. I know there are a bunch of folks who listen in Europe. But I also heard from a woman from Singapore, someone from Australia. In fact, the only continents we didn’t get were Africa and Antarctica."
For Mr. Solomon, the biggest challenge is to stay awake and alert. It was easier when he was a teenager and abusing himself with caffeine and energy drinks. With age, he’s gone a bit more holistic, is gentler on his body and central nervous system, thanks in part to suggestions from his wife.
"When people envision what’s happening on my end, they see someone who’s downing coffee to try and stay awake," he says. "But the highs are way too high and the lows are way too low. I don’t drink a lot of coffee to begin with but I know when it wears off you can feel pretty crummy. So what I did last year was drink a lot of tea, the kind that isn’t too caffeinated. I’d also have a couple of those Silk lattes, a treat every once in a while. That’s totally my wife’s doing, trying to come up with a way I’d have energy throughout.
"Last year was the best I’d felt physically on any of these shows, except for about the last four hours," he adds. "Your body starts to tell you you’ve been awake too long. It definitely takes its toll. But pacing myself is the key."
After 18 years, preparing for and doing the marathon is still a pleasure, a little overwhelming but exciting. The listeners make it all worthwhile.
"I hear from people who will say things like ‘I hate Christmas but I love your show’ or ‘Wow, I didn’t expect to hear that many good songs,’" Mr. Solomon says. "I like to give stuff like this air time because I like to share. It’s like, ‘Oh, you have to hear this.’"
Jon Solomon’s 24-Hour Christmas Show will air on WPRB 103.3 FM Dec. 24, 6 p.m.,
to Dec. 25, 6 p.m. To make a request, call (609) 258-1033 or (609) 258-1233, or
instant message "wprbdj." Jon Solomon’s weekly show airs Wed. 7-10 p.m. WPRB on
the Web: www.wprb.com.
Jon Solomon on the Web: www.keepingscoreathome.com

